Director's erotic auditions 'were sexual assault'

[emad]

Jon Henley in Paris
Friday November 4, 2005
The Guardian


An acclaimed French film director credited with discovering Vanessa Paradis appeared in a Paris court yesterday accused by four young actresses of forcing them to masturbate as part of their screen tests.

Jean-Claude Brisseau denies the charges of sexual harassment and sexual assault, insisting in newspaper interviews that the "erotic auditions", held between 1996 and 2001 for his 2002 feature Choses Secrètes, were justified artistically and "indispensable" to his work.

Mr Brisseau, 61, who cast a teenage Paradis, who is married to Johnny Depp, in his 1989 film Noce Blanche, has twice won awards at Cannes and been nominated for the prestigious Golden Bear at the Berlin film festival.

But the four actresses, two of whom allege the director also tricked them into working for him for nothing, say he abused his authority to gain sexual favours. One told the court Mr Brisseau often asked her to masturbate in front of him, sometimes in public places. She said she did 20 or 30 such "tests" between 1996 and 2001, some of them with another young hopeful. Some sessions were filmed by the director. "He said it was good to improvise all these things now, so as not to waste time on the set. And he said his eye was replacing the camera," she said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,11882,1627441,00.html

[mongo]

1. How in the hell is asking someone to do something

and them voluntarily doing it "assault"?

[bryant69]

2. That would depend on the unspoken part of the transaction

If there is pressure, even if it isn't vocalized, it can still be abusive.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Skinner]

3. Ahem.

I am not sure about assault, but it is most certainly sexual harassment. When you are someone's boss, or their employer, or hold some other power over that person, then the relationship is by nature coersive. If you ask that person do so something like masterbate for your own pleasure, that is not voluntary. They are being coerced because they know you have the power to fire them.

Perhaps you missed the whole Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas Brouhaha.

So, whether or not the word "assault" is correct, I would hope we can both agree that this is coersive, it is (at least) sexual harassment, it is not voluntary, and it is not appropriate.

[walldude]

4. I would agree that it was harassment

the first time. But to come back 20-30 times as stated in the article seems a bit much. Also they were screen tests, so the women weren't actually working for him. Something smells fishy here..

[mongo]

7. Abusive, coercive -

slimy - all of the above.

But assault is a legal term with a certain definition.

And regardless of the power structure, ultimately it was voluntary. If your employer asks you to break the law, and you comply - saying that you were coerced because you were afraid for your job is not going to hold up in court as a defense.

[Greyhound]

5. I was all set to disagree with the charges until I read the rest of the

article and found out he conducted the 'auditions' over a period of years and he masturbated as well. Now I have to conclude he's just another dirty old filmmaker, abusing the young and dumb.

[BeHereNow]

6. Having worked with and been around actresses for years...

I find this story ridiculous.
Can you say, "Dumb as a box of hair?"
Anyone desparate enough to consider the
request an "audition" should keep their day job at the local
nail salon...just saying.
BHN